A Baltic Sea passenger ferry with about 300 people onboard has run aground in the Aland Islands archipelago between Finland and Sweden on Sunday, September 20, Finnish authorities announced.
Rescue officials evacuated the ship of crew and passengers, none of whom suffered any injuries, reports say. The Finnish coastguard tweeted that Viking Line's Amorella cruiseferry (en route from Turku Finland to Stockholm Sweden) was “stuck on the ground” south of Port Langnas (Aland Islands).
The local coastguard division posted that Viking Amorella had made ground contact south of Langnas.
"The ship pushed itself to the shore of the island to stabilise the situation. Several units were alerted and several ships were on-site in preparation for the evacuation. At present, the situation is stable and human lives are not in immediate danger."
Video footage posted on the coastguard's Twitter account showed boats undertaking the evacuation of the passengers.
In a short statement, Viking Line said there were no human casualties, adding that the situation with the ship was stable. According to Viking, Amorella had ~200 passengers plus 80 crew onboard. The cruise ship was scheduled for a stop at Aland Islands (Finland's autonomous territory located midway between the two port cities.
The coastguard was alerted of the accident ~12:50-noon (Finnish time). Authorities are currently investigating why the ship grounded.
For more Viking Amorella accidents and incidents see at the ship's CruiseMinus page.